On the whole I really enjoyed Civil War. Even with a lot more characters it managed to not feel as bloated as Batman v Superman, and definitely a lot more fun. However, I did feel like sometimes which side a character was on was based more on "We need them about even" and "Wouldn't it be interesting if these characters had to fight?" than on what kind of position they might have really ended up on. I'm also wondering on some of the wider consequences we'll learn about later. Like, Spider-Man the high schooler who can't tell his aunt anything about his powers, all of a sudden has a billionaire benefactor and will be registered by the government? Hawkeye and Ant-Man are now fugitives from the law, but also fathers. Are they now separated from their kids for years?

10 Cloverfield Lane is a very good movie and damn intense. It's also nice to see when a movie actually gives a resolution and doesn't chicken out to give an answer in the end.

One of those movies that was bad for my gut, since throughout the whole thing I'm in a "Ugh, things are going to go very bad for these people but I'm not sure exactly how or when" state.

Also, this reminds me of a dumb Twitter account I've recently been exposed to, @LinesOfMovies, which shares the best definitely-real-and-accurate quotes from movies.

10 Cloverfield Lane is a very good movie and damn intense. It's also nice to see when a movie actually gives a resolution and doesn't chicken out to give an answer in the end.

I was the only one that stayed awake for that movie when it was at the drive in and its actually really good. The beginning just makes it seem weird but the good parts definately came after my friends fell asleep.

Oh what the fuck, I really liked him actually. I think the only young actor I actually liked and recognized. He made a great Kyle Reese, and was good in Star Trek too. Welcome to Club 27 I suppose.

I also wanted to say that the Warcraft movie is actually pretty damn good. Ignore what idiot critics who compare it to LotR and what idiot fanboys butthurt about lore accuracy say and just go see it. It's probably the best video game-based movie ever so far, too.

The Yelchin thing is so messed up. That Walter Koenig will outlast him in the role of Chekov. That the circumstances of his death sound pretty awful, not just a regular vehicle collision. And personally, that I'm now just old enough that noticing people dying at 27 seems so so young.

Saw the new Ghostbusters last night, really enjoyed it. Not that it skimped on the jokes, but it also had a lot more intricate action scenes than the old movies. Maybe the last time I left the theater that jazzed was Pacific Rim? Having not seen a Paul Feig movie before I went in without much in the way of expectations, which it clearly managed to beat.

OUR LITTLE SISTER, a drama directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, is playing in New York. It's based on a manga called "Umimachi Diary" and is about three 20-something sisters, all working, who live together and travel to the funeral of their estranged father in Yamagata, only to discover a teenage half-sister they didn't know they had. She's quiet, respectful, mature and level-headed. They are so taken with her that they invite her to come live with them in Kamakura and she agrees. It's a pleasant, heart-warming slice-of-life tale. I enjoyed spending time with these women and reveling in the textures of everyday life in Kamakura, where the pace of life is much slower and more easygoing than in Tokyo. The actresses are all great. Their characters are somewhat idealized and they get along much better than I think women in such a situation (where both parents abandoned them) would get along. But that didn't bother me too much.

I wound up going to a Japanese video store in midtown after seeing the movie and I was able to buy a subtitled copy of the movie.

Just watched Shirome, the horror movie starring Momoiro Clover. Immediately after I wrote a review on Amazon (where I streamed it). It follows:

I've really liked some of the director's other movies (Noroi, Occult) and enjoy some idol pop through I don't specifically follow Momoiro Clover, so I figure I'm the target audience for a movie like this. That said, pretty disappointing.

Compared to those other movies I enjoyed, this one lacks subtlety. More jump scares and silly-looking camera effects which kept me from properly suspending my disbelief and letting a real creep work up. And on the other hand it doesn't go far enough in these things to come across as some sort of parody, so it feels like a movie too far from either side of the pool and drowning.

The subtitles also seem to not have been edited by someone with native-level English skills; awkward phrasings and words like "threeteen" show up.

As a kid I was really into the Power Rangers. Watching the show each week, the movie at the cinema, played their SNES brawler and had several toys... and I had a major crush on Amy Jo Johnson, the pink ranger.Whenever I have a hangover on weekends and wake up early, I check if a Ranger show is on kids TV and when there is, I usually watch it just because I enjoy how stupid it is. It's stupid, but good fun.

When Lionsgate announced a Power Rangers movie, I was afraid it's going to be worthless garbage like the TMNT or Transformers movies.Two weeks ago a full trailer got released:https://www.youtube....h?v=Q-C4qqsgs8w

Doesn't seem campy at all and seems like most of the Snyder-ish/wannabe-Nolan capeshit of recent years. However, it also doesn't look like utter garbage (so far), so I'm cautiously optimistic.

I thought Resurgence was kind of a mess, and it was less impactful for having a 2016 incredibly unlike our own 2016 due to the events of the first movie. Still, fun to see the returning characters again.

I just added Your Name as the 15th entry ranked "Masterpiece" on my anime watch log. That makes it the 3rd entry by Makoto Shinkai in this elite club, thus matching the record set by Studio Ghibli - or beating it if you get technical about Nausicaa not being a Ghibli movie.

Anyway, Your Name is having a pretty wide release in theatres in the US right now (opened last Friday) so you must ABSOLUTELY GO SEE IT if it's playing in your area. No excuses will be tolerated.

I hate the cliché saying that "Shinkai is the new Miyazaki", BUT, he is right up there among the great auteurs of anime such as indeed Miyazaki, Kon, Anno, and Oshii to name a few.

Your Name is absolutely visually spectacular, and emotionally gripping, heartbreaking and soothing at the same time. If you've been following Shinkai's career and craving for more every since Voices of a Distant Star you would rightfully expect all those trademarks of his, however in Your Name they are polished to perfection and delivered flawlessly in just the right doses. The movie treads the fine line, or rather the bleeding edge of suspension of disbelief or plain old jumping the shark, but then it turns it around in the most graceful way only to reveal each time that the picture you expected it to paint was indeed much, much grander. The armchair critic in the back of my head sat terrified expecting the movie to trip over itself and vanish in the trope minefield more than a few times, yet it managed to deliver a flawless 10/10 execution and performance all the way through to the end. As I sat through the rolling credits I didn't know which feeling was stronger, the disbelief that it actually pulled it off, or the immense satisfaction from what I have just witnessed.

I'm afraid Shinkai will have a very hard time topping his own creation - but I'm waiting for him to surprise me. It wouldn't be the first time he did.

And now that I can get off of my high horse I'd also like to say that Shin Godzilla is a better Evangelion movie than all the Rebuilds put together.